Vikingarna

Vikingarna is the most popular Swedish dansband, and one of the best-selling Scandinavian acts of all time. Though active under different monikers since the late 1950s, they settled on the name Vikingarna as dansbandmusik, an upbeat mixture of schlager, country, rock & roll, and swing, was established as a genre around the beginning of the 1970s. They topped the Swedish charts for the first time with 1975's "Du Gav bara löften," from Kramgoa Låtar 1, the first album in a series which continued for decades. Their sound and repertoire became the standard for dansbands, as they kept up their busy recording and performance schedule through frequent lineup changes. They began touring German-speaking countries and releasing German-language music as Vikinger during the early 2000s, before disbanding in 2004, having sold 11 million albums during their career. Following a one-off reunion for a 2016 television program, an updated lineup named Nya Vikingarna resumed touring and released Kramgoa Låtar 30 in 2017. Previous vocalist Christer Sjögren returned, and they issued The Final Tour: Live in Concert in 2022.

Originally founded as Ji-Coo & the Vikings around the time skiffle was peaking in popularity in the late 1950s, the group initially played instrumental rock & roll. As saxophonist Jens "Ji-Coo" Carlsson left, they split into two groups, and the Vikings gradually shifted their style to the dansband sound which was becoming popular. With Stefan Borsch established as the group's lead singer in 1973, the group signed to EMI/Odeon; the contract mistakenly translated their name to Vikingarna, and they decided to keep the moniker. In 1974, the band found its way onto the Svenkstoppen charts with a cover of the Carpenters' "Top of the World." From this point, Vikingarna only burned brighter, signing with Mariann Records the next year and topping the charts with "Du gav bara löften." They began their long march of albums (most of which are titled Kramgoa Låtar), a fairly new phenomenon in a genre dominated by live performance only. Personnel changes occurred often, most notably the replacement of vocalist Stefan Borsch with Christer Sjögren in 1979, the year they recorded a successful cover of Eurovision smash "Dschingis Khan."

The group maintained their regular schedule of touring and releasing at least one album every year, maintaining their success in Sweden in addition to becoming popular in Norway, Denmark, and the Soviet Union. They returned to EMI in the late '80s, and were awarded Grammis in 1988 and 1991. Kramgoa Låtar 1995, their first album following a brief hiatus, became their first hit in Finland. As Vikinger, the band branched out and released several German-language albums beginning in 2000, achieving popularity in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Vikingarna went into retirement after a 2004 concert in their hometown of Arvika. A documentary film titled Kramgött från början till slut premiered, and the final concert was released on CD and DVD as Den Sista Dansen in 2008.

Sjögren and Vikingarna keyboard player Erik Lihm resumed working together in 2011, but they refused to use the Vikingarna name, viewing it as a separate project. However, Vikingarna reunited for a 2016 television show about dansbands, Tack för dansen. Though Sjögren regarded Vikingarna as a finished chapter, three members of the group formed a lineup called Nya Vikingarna, with Kenneth Wahlberg taking over as lead singer. This formation released Kramgoa Låtar 30 in 2017, while Sjögren and the group's longtime saxophonist Tony Eriksson occasionally made guest appearances during gigs. Sjögren returned to Vikingarna in 2020, although soon after they began playing live, they were forced to cancel their tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following their return to the stage, The Final Tour: Live in Concert was released in 2022; however, Vikingarna continued touring into 2024. ~ Adam Greenberg & Paul Simpson